The shawl on the chair
A crocheted shawl, a pair of reading glasses and what they told me about my grandmother’s last winter.
Family history writer
Writing my family’s past from letters, recipes and photographs
I’m Anahit. I write about my family’s past from old letters, recipes and photographs, and I help readers write theirs. I sell a family tree workbook, an interview card deck, a memoir template and two video courses.
Letters from the Drawer
A letter every Saturday: one object, one memory and one small thing to write about your own family.
6 min read
Apricot jam from a torn page
A recipe card with half its words missing, and how I worked out the rest from taste.
8 min read
Tomatoes from a walled garden
The garden my family kept for four generations, and the rows I still remember by name.
About
About me
When my grandmother died I inherited a shawl, a tin of recipe cards and a drawer of letters in handwriting I could barely read. I did not know what to do with them, so I began to write about each one, slowly, on Saturday mornings.
That became a weekly letter, and then a way of working. I start with an object, ask who held it and what they wanted, and write the answer plainly, including the parts I do not know. I am not a historian, only a granddaughter with a notebook, and you can be one too.
What I sell is what I use myself: a workbook for the family tree, a deck of interview questions, a template for putting it all in a book and two video courses for writing your family’s story.
Letters from the Drawer
A letter every Saturday: one object, one memory and one small thing to write about your own family.
The shawl on the chair
A crocheted shawl, a pair of reading glasses and what they told me about my grandmother’s last winter.
6 min read
Apricot jam from a torn page
A recipe card with half its words missing, and how I worked out the rest from taste.
8 min read
Tomatoes from a walled garden
The garden my family kept for four generations, and the rows I still remember by name.
Newsletter
Letters from the Drawer
A short letter every Saturday: one object from the drawer, one family memory and one small thing to try writing.
2,900 readers
Free, and you can leave any time
Shop
Downloads arrive by email. Merch is printed to order and shipped by Printful.
Buy: Family Tree WorkbookFamily Tree Workbook
Forty pages for charting five generations, with a note box for every name you are not sure of.
$12
Buy: Family Interview Question DeckFamily Interview Question Deck
Eighty cards of questions to ask a grandparent, sorted by childhood, work, home and food.
$14
Buy: Family Memoir TemplateFamily Memoir Template
A ready-made book layout for a family history, with chapter pages, photograph spreads and a recipe page.
$22
Buy: Recipe Memory PagesRecipe Memory Pages
Twenty fill-in pages for writing down a family recipe and the story of who cooked it.
$9
Buy: Photograph Caption SheetsPhotograph Caption Sheets
Twelve sheets for writing who, where, when and what a family photograph is hiding.
$8
“Writing Your Family History was clear and easy to follow. I used what I learned the same week.”
AlexCourse student